I turned Windows 8 into my main OS at the release of the dev preview and had tested some leaked builds prior to. This will be a mix of personal experience and just flat out facts.
Edit[All my pictures are from the RTM]
Now the most visible of the changes is definitely the new Windows 8 UI or MetroUI as it was formerly known
The largest change is the new Start Menu the old one shortcuts would be separated into folders and require you to click through them. Well no longer will that be true now you quickly scroll and find the shortcut.
Another big UI change is in Windows explorer.
It has a ribbon like Office but it is hidden by default.
I like the ribbon in Office and I quite like it in explorer and the auto hide is nice. I normally dislike anything that does that but for some reason I like it here.
TaskManger also got a bit of an overhaul.
You can also see Windows 8 uses less ram than Windows 7 and Vista.
I am sure I could have gotten lower with a clean fresh install but this is more realistic.
I know many people tend to freak out over the fullscreen start menu. Based on my personal experience I do like it quite a bit more than the old Windows 7 UI.
The concept of this fullscreens app shortcut list is not unique to Microsoft many Linux distros use similar UI concepts.
I consider Microsofts implementation of this concept a bit better as I can organize shortcuts and then rightclick to access an all apps menu. This allows me to have a page for quick access then still right click to get a full list of things installed on my computer.
Another small thing is the ability to rick click the hot corner and get a menu of some very usefull utilities.
Under the hood this update also has some changes.
A reworked scheduler that can make use of CMT in AMDs recent CPU designs.
USB has been reworked and Windows 8 is much faster at working with flash drives.
Wifi has been tweaked to improve connection times.
Directx is now 11.1
Can mount ISO files now but for some reason a large amount of games think its a hack so no mounting old games to save time from disk swaping.
Maybe the biggest change is booting Windows 8 is mind blowingly faster than 7 in boot times.
It boots so faster MS has to put in a way to boot into safe mode into the UI.
But this brings me to an issue we now have another options menu on top of all the old ones rather than building it into the control panel MS put it and basically hid it.
Well with the update what kind of performance increases are we looking at.
I know many people dislike the Metro UI but I would like to hear why I hate when people just go it sucks.
Also I have no benchmarks but battery life feels better on my Laptop will maybe post a video of the test or something later.
The xbox thing has some cool features you can fire up games with your PC and you can use a virtual controler on your PC just for quick navigation on the xbox. This could be nice your up in your computer room and decide to go play halo you can have it start loading as you walk down to the xbox.
I just noticed that actually, looks like the preview is still a bit buggy in some areas (as expected, it's a preview).
I'm not sure if it's a bug. For tablets the 'swipe to unlock' makes sense, but for PC's it doesn't make sense at all. Maybe if you run it on a PC (if it detects a mouse) it'll allow clicking.
I'm not sure if it's a bug. For tablets the 'swipe to unlock' makes sense, but for PC's it doesn't make sense at all. Maybe if you run it on a PC (if it detects a mouse) it'll allow clicking.
Its a nice little screen and on my networked machines they have had a ctrl alt del open screen for a long time and its nice it has more information.
I'm not sure if it's a bug. For tablets the 'swipe to unlock' makes sense, but for PC's it doesn't make sense at all. Maybe if you run it on a PC (if it detects a mouse) it'll allow clicking.
I used the Release Preview for this, for the Dev and Consumer previews, you had to slide it up.
I think that the Metro (or formerly Metro) UI is getting a lot of unnecessary hate. Looking at screenshots of it, I think it could turn into something quite nice. The one thing I dislike is having all Metro apps fullscreen by default, but I think there will be ways around this.
I'm going to wait for it to actually be released before judging it.
I think that the Metro (or formerly Metro) UI is getting a lot of unnecessary hate. Looking at screenshots of it, I think it could turn into something quite nice. The one thing I dislike is having all Metro apps fullscreen by default, but I think there will be ways around this.
I'm going to wait for it to actually be released before judging it.
On my desktop install I just removed all the metro apps anyway.
Well all my screen shots are using the RTM so its the release version of Windows 8
why cant they just stick with the way apps already do and not make it into a phone like screen. and really only puts it into hibernation..... there is a waste of power
why cant they just stick with the way apps already do and not make it into a phone like screen. and really only puts it into hibernation..... there is a waste of power
You are given the options not to use the full screen apps.
Uh you do understand what hibernation is it literally is using no power.
why cant they just stick with the way apps already do and not make it into a phone like screen. and really only puts it into hibernation..... there is a waste of power
This, and AFAIK they have also made the choice to not allow Firefox or Google Chrome use the full potential of the OS.
This, and AFAIK they have also made the choice to not allow Firefox or Google Chrome use the full potential of the OS.
Uh wrong Firefox and Chrome can be loaded up just fine under 8.
What you might be thinking of is the rumors they might limit metro applications however this is not confirmed and Mozilla said they are assuming they will
This, and AFAIK they have also made the choice to not allow Firefox or Google Chrome use the full potential of the OS.
Citation please?
I was able to use both completely fine, and even though chrome has a metro mode by default, by pinning it to the taskbar you can have it launch in normal desktop mode.
This, and AFAIK they have also made the choice to not allow Firefox or Google Chrome use the full potential of the OS.
I highly doubt they would do such a stupid thing. If they decreased performance of Firefox and Google Chrome on Windows 8 then they would lose a lot of sales. Although Macs actually seem to do this already since Safari seems to always perform the best in Mac browser benchmarks.
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I was able to use both completely fine, and even though chrome has a metro mode by default, by pinning it to the taskbar you can have it launch in normal desktop mode.
I didn't say they won't work in the normal desktop mode. They do, but they won't be able to utilize the full power of Windows 8.
There you go. The post is a few months old, but whatever.
Microsoft has decided that Firefox and Chrome (and other 3rd party browsers) will not be allowed to use some of the important Windows Classic features that they have used in previous Windows versions. Meanwhile, IE10 has full access to these features. And that's just not good. Microsoft is digging its own grave by doing this. They know people hate IE, and they're still trying to shove it down our throats.
Good thing is, Firefox already has Google backing them up. If Opera joins in, they'll be able to put some serious pressure on Microsoft.
I highly doubt they would do such a stupid thing. If they decreased performance of Firefox and Google Chrome on Windows 8 then they would lose a lot of sales. Although Macs actually seem to do this already since Safari seems to always perform the best in Mac browser benchmarks.
Believe or not, but that's exactly what they did. Read the blog post i linked above and you'll see.
There you go. The post is a few months old, but whatever.
Microsoft has decided that Firefox and Chrome will not be allowed to use some of the important Windows Classic features that they have used in previous Windows versions. Meanwhile, IE10 has full access to these features. And that's just not good. Microsoft is digging its own grave by doing this. They know people hate IE, and they're still trying to shove it down our throats.
Good thing is, Firefox already has Google backing them up. If Opera joins in, they'll be able to put some serious pressure on Microsoft.
Notice that is on ARM not on desktop so who cares everyone will keep using Android and everything will be fine.
Edit[All my pictures are from the RTM]
Now the most visible of the changes is definitely the new Windows 8 UI or MetroUI as it was formerly known
The largest change is the new Start Menu the old one shortcuts would be separated into folders and require you to click through them. Well no longer will that be true now you quickly scroll and find the shortcut.
Another big UI change is in Windows explorer.
It has a ribbon like Office but it is hidden by default.
I like the ribbon in Office and I quite like it in explorer and the auto hide is nice. I normally dislike anything that does that but for some reason I like it here.
TaskManger also got a bit of an overhaul.
You can also see Windows 8 uses less ram than Windows 7 and Vista.
I am sure I could have gotten lower with a clean fresh install but this is more realistic.
I know many people tend to freak out over the fullscreen start menu. Based on my personal experience I do like it quite a bit more than the old Windows 7 UI.
The concept of this fullscreens app shortcut list is not unique to Microsoft many Linux distros use similar UI concepts.
I consider Microsofts implementation of this concept a bit better as I can organize shortcuts and then rightclick to access an all apps menu. This allows me to have a page for quick access then still right click to get a full list of things installed on my computer.
Another small thing is the ability to rick click the hot corner and get a menu of some very usefull utilities.
Under the hood this update also has some changes.
A reworked scheduler that can make use of CMT in AMDs recent CPU designs.
USB has been reworked and Windows 8 is much faster at working with flash drives.
Wifi has been tweaked to improve connection times.
Directx is now 11.1
Can mount ISO files now but for some reason a large amount of games think its a hack so no mounting old games to save time from disk swaping.
Maybe the biggest change is booting Windows 8 is mind blowingly faster than 7 in boot times.
It boots so faster MS has to put in a way to boot into safe mode into the UI.
But this brings me to an issue we now have another options menu on top of all the old ones rather than building it into the control panel MS put it and basically hid it.
Well with the update what kind of performance increases are we looking at.
I know many people dislike the Metro UI but I would like to hear why I hate when people just go it sucks.
Also I have no benchmarks but battery life feels better on my Laptop will maybe post a video of the test or something later.
The xbox thing has some cool features you can fire up games with your PC and you can use a virtual controler on your PC just for quick navigation on the xbox. This could be nice your up in your computer room and decide to go play halo you can have it start loading as you walk down to the xbox.
Its a nice little screen and on my networked machines they have had a ctrl alt del open screen for a long time and its nice it has more information.
I'm going to wait for it to actually be released before judging it.
On my desktop install I just removed all the metro apps anyway.
Well all my screen shots are using the RTM so its the release version of Windows 8
You are given the options not to use the full screen apps.
Uh you do understand what hibernation is it literally is using no power.
This, and AFAIK they have also made the choice to not allow Firefox or Google Chrome use the full potential of the OS.
Uh wrong Firefox and Chrome can be loaded up just fine under 8.
What you might be thinking of is the rumors they might limit metro applications however this is not confirmed and Mozilla said they are assuming they will
I was able to use both completely fine, and even though chrome has a metro mode by default, by pinning it to the taskbar you can have it launch in normal desktop mode.
I highly doubt they would do such a stupid thing. If they decreased performance of Firefox and Google Chrome on Windows 8 then they would lose a lot of sales. Although Macs actually seem to do this already since Safari seems to always perform the best in Mac browser benchmarks.
I know it's a pre-release but I really don't like the UI change so far. I'll stick with Windows 7 until the support is up probably.
I honestly believe there should be two Windows versions like "Windows Portable" and "Windows Home Premium". Because the UI looks like a phone/tablet.
EDIT: Woah, it appears that I'm on the front page of a pinned megathread! Wooooo!
Well, as in world, I mean the CS&T section of the MCF. Good enough. lol
Proud member of spigotmc.org.
I didn't say they won't work in the normal desktop mode. They do, but they won't be able to utilize the full power of Windows 8.
http://blog.mozilla....ser-choice-too/
There you go. The post is a few months old, but whatever.
Microsoft has decided that Firefox and Chrome (and other 3rd party browsers) will not be allowed to use some of the important Windows Classic features that they have used in previous Windows versions. Meanwhile, IE10 has full access to these features. And that's just not good. Microsoft is digging its own grave by doing this. They know people hate IE, and they're still trying to shove it down our throats.
Good thing is, Firefox already has Google backing them up. If Opera joins in, they'll be able to put some serious pressure on Microsoft.
Believe or not, but that's exactly what they did. Read the blog post i linked above and you'll see.
Notice that is on ARM not on desktop so who cares everyone will keep using Android and everything will be fine.
Oh, what's this then:
"While ARM chipsets may be primarily built into phones and tablets today, in the future ARM will be significant on the PC hardware platform as well"
Taken straight from the Mozilla blog post. It WILL affect PC users.
Let's just stop this now before it turns into a flamewar. Everyone can draw their own conclusions.
By the time an ARM soc can even get close to my computer today Windows 9 will be old.
This does not effect desktop users and it does not effect mobile users Windows is not a large part of the mobile market.